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The Israeli military carried out drone strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday, just hours after the presidents of the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding that establishes a framework for negotiations to end the war launched by the Trump administration and Israel in late February.
Lebanese media reported that “an Israeli drone dropped a munition on Beit Yahoun, injuring two people.” A separate drone strike “on a vehicle at the roundabout between Kfartebnit and Arnoun killed one person and critically wounded another,” according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
The attacks underscored the threat that Israel’s ongoing military occupation of and assault on Lebanon poses to the prospects of a final peace agreement between the US and Iran. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) that Trump signed in France late Wednesday explicitly includes Lebanon and indicates that continued Israeli attacks would violate the deal.
“The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war, by signing this MOU, declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon,” the document states.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused of working to sabotage diplomatic progress, has voiced defiance in response to negotiations between the US and Iran, refusing to commit to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon. Since March 2, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed around 3,800 people, including hundreds of children, according to Lebanese authorities.
Reuters reported Thursday that Israel is “holding negotiations with the US as it seeks to continue its deployment of troops in southern Lebanon.” An unnamed senior Israeli official, described as close to Netanyahu, told the news outlet that “Israel would not back down on its positions, including keeping troops deployed in the area south of Lebanon’s Litani River.”
“A second Israeli official told Reuters that the outcome of the talks would ultimately depend on whether US President Donald Trump ‘decides to force the issue’ by threatening repercussions if Israel does not abide by the interim Iran pact’s terms,” the outlet added.
Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, Trump called Netanyahu “a very good man” and an “amazing prime minister.”
“We have a little dispute over Lebanon,” the president added. “I say, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibi. You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.’”
Esmaeil Baqaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said Thursday that the MOU signed Wednesday would be “nullified” in the absence of a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and an end to military attacks.
“It is the responsibility of the US,” said Baqaei, to “force” Israel to “respect the US commitments to Iran in this document.”
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